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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

Injection Mold Design

Guidelines
SIXTH IN A SERIES

Maximizing
Performance Using
Copper Alloys
Cooling With Copper Alloys
Typically the C17200, C17510 and
C18000 copper alloys are used in
plastic forming areas of molds
because of their high thermal conductivity and unique abilities to
attain a more even molding surface
temperature.
The key to obtaining and maintaining plastic part
dimensional stability and
repeatability, critical in three and
six sigma molding, is to expose
each and every
cavity and molding cycle to
exactly the same
conditions. The
molding machine
and/or process
controls provide
the ability to
control melt
temperatures,
screw recovery,
injection rates
Illustration A: Water channel placement showing position
and pressures,
between channel and edge of cavity
cycle time and
forming alloy.
other parameters associated
with the process. Control of both
the mold surface temperature and
then the range of these temperatures is a separate and frequently
overlooked process.
After cavity filling, mold temperature control is the single most
important factor influencing dimensional control of the molded part.
All thermoplastics have to be cooled
from their melt temperature to a
temperature where they can be

By Dr. Paul Engelmann


and Bob Dealey
for the Mold Marketing
Task Group of the Copper
Development Association

ejected correctly without harming


the part. Normally we think of the
process as just cooling of the mold,
but sometimes the mold is heated.
Our ultimate objective is to control
mold temperature within a range
that yields a product within specifications at acceptable cycle times.
Placement of Coolant Channels
Ideal placement of water channels
in copper alloys will enhance an
already good mold temperature
control material. Good design
practice calls for the edge of the
channels to be placed two times
the diameter of the channel away
from the molds plastic forming
surfaces, see Illustration A. This
distance has proven to be effective
in providing enough support to
prevent deformation of the molding surface and ideal for providing
an even mold surface temperature.
Closer placement to the plastic
forming surface could result in
greater temperature variation
across the mold surface by overcooling areas in closer proximity.
The pitch, distance between coolant
channels, is also an important
design consideration. The recommended distance between these
channels is two to five times the
diameter of the coolant channel.
These recommendations have
proven effective in mold applications using copper alloys.
Frequently, in similar situations with
molds built from tool steels, the
recommendations are to place the
coolant channels closer to the surface with reduced pitch distances.
The superior thermal conductivity
of the copper alloys allows greater
freedom in channel placement.
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Illustration B: Baffle in series coolant circuit, positioned to force


flow up and over baffle and not around.

A fluid circulating
pump with capability
of achieving turbulent
flow rates is an important part of the equation. When using cold
mold temperatures,
typically below 50
degrees F, closed systems with mixtures of
water and ethylene
glycol are typically
used. These systems
require higher horsepower motors to
achieve the same flow
rates as water as the
viscosity of the fluid
changes. Temperature
ranges between 50 and
210 degrees F usually
use plain water.
Processes over the
boiling point of water
generally rely on oil
and usually the mold is
being heated, even
though the mold has
to cool the plastic to
eject it.

Reynolds Numbers
A method used in mold
design to describe the
mold temperature control fluid flow in a
mold, either laminar or
turbulent, is by a
dimensionless number.
The Reynolds number
takes into account the
pressure, volume and
viscosity of the coolant,
the resistance to flow,
length and diameter of
the channels and the
Illustration C: Bubbler in parallel coolant circuit. Area of center of
pressure loss in the cirtube should equal area of return.
cuit. Laminar flow in a
plastic mold, described
by Reynolds numbers
below 2,000, indicates
conditions whereby
heat is not efficiently transferred
from the channel wall to the circulating media. Turbulent flow,
Reynolds numbers above 5,000,
describe conditions where efficient transfer of heat is made
from the coolant channel wall to
the circulating media. Heat transfer during turbulent conditions
can be as much as three to five
times greater than with laminar
flow. Numbers falling between
2,000 and 3,500 describe a transition phase and typically is ineffective in closely controlling
mold surface temperatures.
A simplified formula for determining the Reynolds number for
systems using water appears in
54

LHP

Injection Molding Handbook,


edited by Dominick V. Rosato and
Donald V. Rosato. It takes into
account the fluid velocity in feet
per second times the diameter
of the coolant passage times a
constant of 7740 divided the viscosity of water. Water viscosity
changes as temperatures
increase. At 32F the viscosity of
water is about 1.8 centistokes, at
100F it has changed to about 0.7
and at 200F about 0.3. This
explains why, on occasion,
increasing coolant temperature
reduces part warpage and cycle
time. Lessons learned in production molding have shown that
with the use of copper alloys
higher coolant temperatures can
be used, reducing sweating of
the mold and supply lines, while
producing a better part at lower
cycle times.
Normally mold cool programs
are used to analyze effectiveness
of heat transfer in the mold due
to number of variables affecting
the calculation. While better
cooling is achieved with higher
Reynolds numbers, a point of
diminishing returns will be
reached. When the circulating
media has the capability of
removing heat faster than the
plastic will give it up, which is
typically the case with the proper
application of copper alloys,
energy in cooling or heating and
pumping the circulating media is
wasted. Correctly designed
coolant systems are important
factors in obtaining fast and economical cycle time. The higher
thermal conductivity of the copper alloys allows more freedom
in this design over traditional
tool steels.
An effective method of testing
existing mold temperature control systems is to remove an exit
line and measure the coolant
flow through that circuit. The
following table lists the flow
nominal size (pipe), drilled whole
diameter and the minimum
water flow required insuring turbulent flow.

Pipe Size

1/16-NT
1/8-NPT
1/4-NPT
3/8-NPT
1/2-NPT

Drilled
Channel
Diameter
.250
.3125
.4375
.562
.6875

Min. Flow
(gal/min)
.33
.44
.55
.75
1.3

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Chill Plates
Earlier injection mold design guidelines describe the effective use of a
chill (temperature control) plate
made from the same copper alloy to
insure the same thermal conductivity. Testing at Western Michigan
University has proven the effectiveness of cooling multiple small cores
that have small diameters preventing water passages. It is necessary
that the core pin heads be firmly
seated against a clean and oxidation
free plate surface to insure efficient
transfer of heat.
Temperature Control Channels with
Baffles
Channels that divert temperature
control fluids from one level to areas
where heat is concentrated in the
mold can use baffles, Illustration B,
to positively direct the flow through
the channel. This type of coolant
direction is referred to as series flow
when multiple baffles are used.
Proper mold design starts with the
diameter and area of the inlet channel. The hole for the baffle, after taking the area occupied by the baffle
into account, must be twice the area
of the inlet channel, to prevent flow
restrictions and high-pressure losses. Remember when calculating
flow channels that twice the area is
not the same as twice the diameter.
Brass baffle and pressure plugs,
which resists the build up of water
deposits, work best in copper alloys.
Most standard off the shelf baffles
use a dry seal design, where standard pipe taper is 3/4 inch/foot, the
dry seal design features 7/8
inch/foot taper. To prevent high
hoop stresses on the copper alloys
straight thread pressure plugs must
be used instead of either tapered or
dry seal pressure plugs.
Another important consideration is
the clearance area between the tip
of the baffle and the drilled hole.
General design practice is to allow
the same gap as the diameter of the
baffle hole. Make sure that the baffle
is installed at a 90 angle to the flow
of the coolant to positively force the
flow up and over the baffle.
Otherwise leakage around the baffle
will result in inefficient cooling. An
effective method is to braze the baffle blade to the pressure plug and
mark the outside of the plug with a
line indicating the blade orientation.
Check to insure that the blade is
properly positioned when the pressure plug is tight.
As temperature control fluid flow is
positively directed through each
channel, care must be taken to

insure that the outlet temperature


does not exceed the
inlet temperatures
by more than 3to
5F. High temperature differentials
between individual
cavities or their
mold sections
results in undesirable part consistency. Therefore, series
circuits typically
have a maximum of
six to eight baffles.
Spiral baffles are useful in long slender
Illustration D: Recommended straight threaded pressure plug
cores as the coolant
and seal.
flows around the
baffle, exposing the
cuits and must be avoided to
diameter of the coolant channel to
achieve optimum mold cooling.
more even temperatures than what
could result from having up one side
Drilling and Plugging Coolant
and down the other side of a core.
Channels
Incorrect assumptions have been
Long coolant channels are typically
made that spiral baffles create turgun drilled in mold plates, cavities
bulent flow, the fact is that spiraling
and cores. Typically, even with accuwater does not create turbulent
rate gun drilling, the hole can wanflow or result in higher Reynolds
der and the tolerance of hole locanumbers, by the fact that the
tion is normally understood to be
coolant is turning.
.0.001 per inch of length. Smaller
diameter drills tend to wander more
Temperature Control Channels with
than larger diameters. Care must be
Bubblers
taken when coolant lines pass close
Bubblers are also used to step
to holes in the mold and adequate
coolant into areas of the mold that
clearances must be allowed to prerequire heat removal. The major difvent break though or leaving a weak
ference between the bubbler and
section of the mold. With copper
the baffle is that water flows up a
alloys the minimum recommended
tube in the center of the coolant
distance is approximately .100",
channel and cascades down the outdepending upon coolant diameter,
side to the outlet, Illustration C.
distance from drill start and the size
These cooling circuits, when more
and location of the cross hole.
than one bubbler is used are called
Coolant channels should not run
parallel circuits. The inlet has to
parallel or in close proximity with
have greater volume than the sum
sharp cavity corners to guard against
of the bubbler internal diameters to
premature failure.
insure that each circuit will have the
same flow rates.
The coolant channels, Illustration D,
should be blocked with a fabricated
Design of the coolant channel and
straight threaded brass plug to avoid
the bubbler is important to successexcessive hoop stresses on the copful mold temperature control. The
per alloys. An effective method in
area of the internal diameter of the
bubbler tube, D2 must be exactly the leak prevention is to counter bore
the plug hole and then use an O-ring
same as D3 to insure that high-presinstalled in compression. The O-ring
sure losses are not encountered.
should be replaced each time the
Critical to the calculation is deterplug is removed or at major mold
mining the bubbler wall thickness,
maintenance cycles. Cross-drilled
D1 and the area it occupies. The
connecting channels should have
coolant inlet must feed the bottom
the drill point run out in the conof the bubbler tube. The outlet for
necting channel, avoiding stress risthe coolant is around the outside
ers.
diameter of the bubbler tube. Each
mold coolant channel inlet and outSeries and Parallel Channels
let must be clearly marked to insure
Coolant channel placement has to
that outside connections are corbe considered and engineered into
rectly made, insuring the proper
the mold design from the onset.
flow. Excessive looping can result in
Efficient mold temperature control
high-pressure losses with these cirNovember 1999

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has to have the same priority in a


mold design as gating and part
ejection; it cannot be an afterthought. Coolant circuits can
loop inside the mold with connecting channels or outside the
mold with external connections.
When the mold design calls for
series internal looping, and the
coolant could flow in more than
one direction, flow must be positively routed in the desired channel. A number of diverter plugs
are commercially available to
block the unused channels and
direct flow though the designated route. However, a simple and
recommended method is to
machine a brass plug .003/.005
smaller than the coolant channel
with the plug length twice the
diameter, Illustration E. The plug
should be inserted into the channel with a light press fit to insure
it remains firmly in the correct
position. The location should be
measured by inserting a rod into
the coolant channel and the
entire circuit water tested to
insure that proper routing without restriction has been achieved.

Illustration E: Looped water circuit with diverter.

Illustration F: Intersection drilled coolant channels in hard


to reach locations.

O-Rings for Sealing Coolant


Channels
O-rings, when placed in compression, have proven to be the
most effective method of providing a seal between two joining
components in a mold. They are
placed between mating components when baffles or bubblers
are used. Additionally, O-rings
are placed between cavity and
core components when coolant
is directed through the "A", "B"
and support plates. The O-ring
material type must have a compatible temperature rating within the range of the coolant and

mold operation temperature. On


occasion a reaction can occur
between copper alloys, in the
presence of water and/or other
fluids and certain mold steels
where corrosion or pitting could
take place. To prevent the possibility of this electrolytic action
taking place, the copper alloy can
be chromium or nickel-plated in
the O-ring area. The objective is
to prevent direct contact
between the two materials by
using a third compatible material. If the copper alloy component will have a coating or plating applied to the molding surface anyway, covering the whole
component will normally suffice.
A separate or different coating
for the O-ring area should not be
necessary.
All Water Lines are Not Straight
Through Mold Components
The design and routing of
coolant channels can be challenging, especially in mold
cores. Straight through drilled
passages are not always possible due to mold configuration,
mounting and ejector pin holes
and other obstacles.
Machining or drilling channels
that intersect and direct
coolant flow to the desired
location, Illustration F, should
be considered. The use of innovative design methods, including baffles and bubblers, to
insure proper mold temperature control is achieved pays
handsome rewards in obtaining
an efficient running mold.
Coupling these design principles with the use of copper
alloys and their superior thermal conductivity provides the
best opportunity in achieving
optimum molding conditions

Acknowledgements
The injection mold design guidelines were written by Dr. Paul Engelmann, Associate
Professor, Western Michigan University and Bob Dealey, Dealey's Mold Engineering,
with the support of Dr. Dale Peters, for the Mold Marketing Task Group of the
Copper Development Association. Kurt Hayden, graduate research assistant, WMU,
generated the illustrations. Research conducted by WMU plastic program students.

Disclaimer
These guidelines are a result of research at WMU and industry experience gained
with the use of copper alloys in injection molding. While the information contained is deemed reliable, due to the wide variety of plastics materials, mold
designs and possible molding applications available, no warranties are expressed or
implied in the application of these guidelines.

Contact Information
Information on copper alloys is available from the Copper Development Association,
at 800-232-3282. Technical clarification of the guidelines can be made by contacting
Bob Dealey, Dealey's Mold Engineering at 262-245-5800
For more information about the use of copper alloys in tooling, please write in 674 on the reader service card.

56

LHP

November 1999

MODERN PLASTICS, Issue


date, Folio #, Date, Time

BLACK CYAN
PMS ID

MAGENTA

YELLOW
5%

25%

50%

75%

95%

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